International Brazilian Opera Company and Opera Ebony to Present OPERA NOVA: NYC at Carnegie Hall

IBOC, the International Brazilian Opera Company, will open its biennial recital series, Opera Nova: NYC, in collaboration with Opera Ebony at Carnegie Hall. Works from seven living Brazilian opera composers are curated by IBOC Artistic Director João MacDowell. The select gems from Brazil’s new opera scene highlight how Brazilians continue to reshape opera with their unique cultural blends.

Most works are U.S. premieres, featuring composers spanning four generations and distinct approaches to contemporary opera, from Guggenheim Fellow-awardee Jocy de Oliveira and experimental music pioneer Jorge Antunes to emerging talents Franceile Regina and Sombrio da Silva.

The concert also honors a connection planted more than 20 years ago. MacDowell met Opera Ebony co-founder Benjamin Matthews in 2002 while the bass-baritone was on tour at Rio de Janeiro’s Municipal Theater. Matthews, who performed with the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera, helped build a company that has supported Black artists, inclusive repertoire and new operas. After looking at some of Joao MacDowell’s scores, he invited the young musician to come to NYC to work with opera in 2002. Shortly after MacDowell arrived in NYC, Matthews passed away, and by 2014, the composer had co-founded the International Brazilian Opera Company. The connection between Brazilian and African-American culture, Harlem and Brazil, makes this concert meaningful at a larger cultural level.

The performers serve the range of these compositions. Opera Ebony’s 2023 Benjamin Matthews Vocal Competition winner Kyaunnee Richardson joins Victoria A. Davis and Chantelle Grant in de Oliveira’s a cappella work. Ebo, whose Florestan in Heartbeat Opera’s Fidelio drew notice from The New Yorker, sings from the prolific Ripper and joins Richardson, Grant and baritone Kevin Daniel Johnson in MacDowell’s Brazilian folklore-motif-inspired vocal quartet and piano Suite No. 7 from the opera Tamanduá. Johnson and Davis make their Carnegie Hall debut. Pianist Mireia Frutos Fernández, an experienced collaborator with living composers, anchors the works for voice and piano.

The IBOC Opera Nova 2026/2027 NYC recital season is scheduled to continue with a salon-style performance series in January 2027, at Berimbau Restaurant’s 2nd Floor, pairing a culture-in-the-making showcase with Berimbau’s Brazilian cocktail and tasting menu. Follow @ibrazilianopera for updates and tickets.

Featured Composers

Clarice Assad is a two-time Latin Grammy nominee and the daughter of famed Brazilian guitarist Sergio Assad.

Jorge de Freitas Antunes is considered the founder of Brazilian electronic music.

Franciele Regina Lima is an emerging composer and expert in 20th-century musical aesthetics and avant-garde language.

João MacDowell, IBOC Artistic Director and founder, is the author of five operas, including Tamanduá (Boston Metropolitan Opera Award) and The Seventh Seal, with a libretto by the late Ingmar Bergman.

Jocy de Oliveira is a nonagenarian Guggenheim Fellow Award winner whose early career placed her as one of Stravinsky and John Cage’s preferred concert pianists.

João Guilherme Ripper is a prolific opera composer and current President of the Academia Brasileira de Música.

Sombrio da Silva is an emerging contemporary composer and multi-instrumentalist whose work moves between concert music, experimental idioms and opera. Da Silva is connected to IBOC’s new-opera incubator pipeline, with his opera project Imperfect Decisions developed and presented through IBOC Institute programs.

Program

All works are U.S. premieres with the exception of Assad’s The Selfish Giant.

Aria from The Selfish Giant — Opera by Clarice Assad, with libretto by Lila Palmer. 2 minutes. Baritone Kevin Johnson, with Mireia Frutos Fernández on piano. (Not a U.S. premiere.)

Three arias from Imperatriz Leopoldina — Opera by Jorge Antunes. 18 minutes. Dramatic Soprano Victoria A. Davis, with Mireia Frutos Fernández on piano.

“Sanninha, Eu Vi” — Aria from Piedade — Opera by João Guilherme Ripper. 16 minutes. Tenor Nelson Ebo, with Mireia Frutos Fernández on piano.

Aria from Gota Tártara (a nightmare opera) — Opera by Franciele Regina Lima, with libretto by Sofia Boito. 10 minutes. Dramatic Soprano Victoria A. Davis, with Mireia Frutos Fernández on piano.

Five arias from Imperfect Decisions — Opera by Sombrio da Silva. 18 minutes. Mezzo-Soprano (TBC), Soprano Kyaunnee Richardson, with Mireia Frutos Fernández on piano.

“Ouço Vozes Que Se Perdem Nas Veredas Que Encontrei” — Aria by Jocy de Oliveira. 15 minutes. Soprano Kyaunnee Richardson, Dramatic Soprano Victoria A. Davis and Mezzo Chantelle Grant. A cappella.

Tamanduá — Suite No. 7 — Opera by João MacDowell. 20 minutes. Soprano Kyaunnee Richardson, Mezzo Chantelle Grant, Tenor Nelson Ebo, Baritone Kevin Johnson, with Mireia Frutos Fernández on piano.

Vocal Soloists

Chantelle Grant — Mezzo-Soprano
Kyaunnee Richardson — Lyric Soprano
Victoria A. Davis — Dramatic Soprano
Kevin Johnson — Baritone
Nelson Ebo — Tenor